Did you sleep on one of the best postpunk acts of the year? Well, it's not too late. Fronted by the brilliantly named Yannis Philippakis, Foals went from playing house parties in their native Oxford, England, to joining the increasingly eclectic roster at Seattle powerhouse label Sub Pop with a fantastic first album, "Antidotes." Featuring songs propelled by shouted choruses, spiky guitars and fluid tribal rhythms, it almost makes up for the band members' geometric haircuts and bad fashion sense. Catch Foals at the Sub Pop 20th anniversary festivities in Seattle next Sunday, or, better yet, wait until the band arrives at the Treasure Island Music Festival on Sept. 20.

Q:What does it feel like the first time you walk into the Sub Pop office? Do you get a sense of the history, or does it just smell like old flannel?

A: You do, yeah. Definitely. And it just makes it all the more real because, up until that point, we had only met a few people and stuff. We just bumped into Mark Arm from Mudhoney, and I grew up listening to his band, so that's pretty weird.

Q:Do the old grunge guys just hang out in the lobby waiting for people to recognize them?

A: I wouldn't know, but I just saw him, and that was cool.

Q:How did you feel about your first album the day you decided it was finished?

A: We never decided it was finished. We would never release anything if we decided it was finished. That's why it's a good thing we have a label. It forces you to let go. It's an important lesson. If we were left to our own devices, we would come out with these ridiculous prog-rock epics. Self-restraint would go out the window, and we would just bore each other insane. It would be like "Chinese Democracy" or something.

A: No. There's a lot of editing that goes on. I'm just appreciative that there's an external power that makes us release stuff. We're never totally happy with it. It doesn't mean that we would totally keep adding. It's like picking a scab. We just endlessly scratch until it draws blood.

Q:So if you had to give this album a mark from one to 10, what would you give it?

A: I'd give it a ... I don't know. I don't even really like marks.

Q:What about thumbs up? Just as far as a personal achievement?

A: I don't know, man. This question is so f- up. I don't know. Give it a seven for personal achievement.

Q: And compared with everything else out there?

A: Give it a six compared to everything else.

Q:Just a six?

A: Just comparing it to the records I think are great. That's such a f- up question. I don't know.

Q:Well, I was kind of hoping you would give it a higher mark so people might buy it or something.

A: It was really fun. They're really nice guys. The size of the show was pretty weird. Those are the biggest shows we've played by a long way. Those were 10,000 capacity rooms or something. It was kind of weird trying to make the sound translate, but they were nice to us.

Q:Are you interested in selling out like that someday?

A: We don't really think about that. Either way, all I care about is being at home writing music. The more people we play to, the better. We obviously want to play for loads of people, but those specific kinds of shows I'm not really interested in. Otherwise we would sound more like Bruce Springsteen. It's just clearly not our goal.